


Morning Coffee

by Bobcatmoran



Category: Kamen Rider Build
Genre: Gen, spoilers through episode 45
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:00:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21763366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bobcatmoran/pseuds/Bobcatmoran
Summary: It's a quarter past x2=32+42o'clock. That's not too early to be up, right? Sure.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19
Collections: Another Toku Holiday Special (2019)





	Morning Coffee

**Author's Note:**

  * For [C-chan (1001paperboxes)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/1001paperboxes/gifts).



Sawatari Kazumi woke up with a gasp, disoriented and tangled in his blanket. He closed his eyes again, took a couple deep breaths, then reopened them. The Nascita basement. Right. Okay. He was in the cafe basement and he was safe and…he flexed his hand where he’d apparently been gripping the dog tags hard enough to leave small dents in his palm…and his boys were still dead. But everyone else, everyone on the farm, they were safe. Okay. More deep breaths. There.

He rolled over and squinted up at the clock. Apparently it was a quarter past x 2 =3 2 +4 2 o’clock. He wasn’t sure what that was in non-physicist time, but judging by where the hands were, it probably wasn't _too_ insanely early to be up. Certainly it wouldn’t have been back home. He quietly edged around the futon where Sento and Banjou were curled up, Banjou with an arm flung over Sento at an angle that couldn’t possibly be comfortable, then tiptoed past the bed where he could just make out the double lump that was Misora and Sawa under the covers, and up the stairs.

There was an orange glint of sunrise streaming in through the windows, so it looked like x 2 =3 2 +4 2 o’clock was indeed not too early to be up, at least by his standards. So, with that settled, on to the next priority: coffee. He wasn’t about to try using the fancy espresso machine that no one seemed to know how to operate, but there was a good, solid reliable coffee pot over in the corner that required nothing more than knowing how to get out a filter, put coffee in it, and pour in hot water.

Just as the kettle was boiling, the refrigerator door to downstairs opened. Sawa, yawning, her hair still in a ponytail from sleep, stepped out. She looked around, then saw him and smiled. “I thought I heard someone walking around upstairs,” she said quietly.

“I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“Mmm, no.” Sawa stretched. “I just couldn’t sleep any more. Is that coffee you’re making?”

“Want a cup?”

“Oh, you’re the best.” Sawa took the offered mug. “Mmm,” she said, inhaling the aroma. She then took a sip. “Ah, you made it so strong!” She made a face.

“There’s still some of that canned stuff you bought if you’d rather do that,” Kazumi said, gesturing towards the actually functional refrigerator under the counter.

“I think I’ll be okay with some milk.” Sawa poured in a splash and then sampled her coffee again. “Or maybe a lot of milk. And sugar.” While she doctored her coffee, she continued on, “I was surprised to see it was you up here and not Sento-kun. I’ve woken up some mornings and he’s still awake — just never went to bed.”

“Didn’t you hear Ryuuga last night? He said that if Sento didn’t go to sleep, he was going to sit on him until he did.”

Sawa laughed. “I must have missed that. Do you want to go up on the roof? I don’t want to wake up anyone downstairs with our noise.”

* * *

Outside, the clouds glowed orange against the brightening sky. Kazumi grabbed one of the lounge chairs and pointedly oriented it towards the ocean, away from the red glow of the Sky Wall and that nightmare tower. Too early to deal with that. He settled himself into it with a contented sigh, cupping his hands around his coffee and taking a sip.

“It’s such a nice view up here,” Sawa said, dragging over a chair of her own.

“Yeah, Vernage chose a good spot.” Kazumi sipped at his coffee again, then frowned. “You ever wonder how the electricity and water and all still work? Because I don’t think we’re actually hooked up to anything out here.”

“I’ve figured I’m better off not knowing.”

“Probably some sort of Martian whatever. Or wormholes. Or some other sort of fancy physics space thing. I’ll bet Sento knows.” Kazumin leaned back in his chair, then let out an amused, “Heh.”

“What is it?”

“Just that, if you’d told me a year ago that this is where I would be today, I would have laughed at you. Fighting side-by-side with a bunch of folks from Touto I’d never met before, up against a planet-devouring alien…” he grinned dreamily “…living with Mii-tan…”

Sawa shoved at him. “Don’t.”

“Hey, hey, watch the coffee!” Kazumi glared at her and took a defiant slurp.

Sawa rolled her eyes, then said in a more conciliatory tone, “It really is different from being back on the farm though, I imagine.”

Kazumi chewed on his lip and gripped his coffee cup a bit harder than was really necessary. “We were looking at a sixth failed harvest in a row. Nothing would grow right — it was like the soil was dead, even though the weather’d been in our favor for once. I was trying to figure out if it’d be worth it to sell the farm truck. It’d have screwed us over for the future, but at least we’d all be able to eat for awhile longer.” He spun his coffee cup in his hands, absently. “And then I heard about how the military was desperate for volunteers for some sort of secret program, and I made a deal that they could use me if they’d take care of the folks back home.”

“I envy you that.”

“What, being so broke you’re willing to volunteer for human experimentation?”

“No, having —“ Sawa looked down at her coffee as though it contained the words she wanted — “having that sort of connection, having people like that, who you’d be willing to do anything for.”

“Huh.”

“Nanba Children weren’t exactly encouraged to build any sort of personal relationships. Rather the opposite — anything for Nanba Industries, you know,” she said, repeating the rote phrase with some bitterness. 

“That’s messed up.”

“There was a lot of backstabbing. Sometimes literally.”

“Again, messed up.”

“Hey,” a voice said, coming up the stairs.

Kazumi and Sawa turned as one, craning their necks to see who it was.

Sento’s head popped up, and he gestured over his shoulder back down. “Breakfast is ready.”

“Whose turn is it to cook?” Kazumi asked, getting up.

“It’s Banjou’s turn on Tuesdays,” Sawa said.

“So…toast, then?” Kazumi asked.

“Yup,” Sento said. 

“Man, someone needs to teach that boy how to cook,” Kazumi said as they headed downstairs.

“Are you volunteering?” Sento asked. “Because I already tried to teach him how to use the rice cooker, and look how that went.”

“You really shouldn’t be able to mess that up as badly as he did,” Kazumi said. “It has numbers on it and everything. Just put in, like, four cups of rice and fill it with water to the number ‘four.’ It’s not that hard.”

“I wonder if Evolt’s DNA affected his tastebuds somehow?”

“It certainly would explain how he’s able to eat Gentoku’s cooking,” Sawa mused.

“Okay, that’s it, we’re having a group cooking lesson after breakfast. This is ridiculous, having five people on meal rotation and only three of them able to make anything edible,” Kazumi declared. “Sento, you’re in charge of it.”

“Excuse me? I think the hero has more important things to do than lead a cooking class.”

“It’s Beardo’s turn for dinner tonight.”

“Fine.” Sento sighed. “You’re on dishes duty, though.”

“Me?”

“Tertiary characters get dishes,” Sento said smugly. “Those are the rules.”

“Jerk.”


End file.
